Federal Government Policy and Business

Supreme Court Weighs Bias and Secrecy in Jury Deliberations

The New York Times: WASHINGTON — In an argument marked by testy exchanges, the Supreme Court on Tuesday struggled to decide whether it should make an exception to the usual rule that jury deliberations are secret when evidence emerges that those discussions were marred by racial or ethnic bias.

Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said that allowing one exception to secrecy would soon lead to others. “The next case is going to be religion,” he said. “So whatever we say on race is going to have either a limiting principle that makes sense, or it’s going to open up a broad category of cases.”

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, responding to the chief justice, said rooting out racial bias in the criminal justice system was a particularly pressing concern. “I always thought the most pernicious and odious discrimination in our law is based on race,” she said.

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